Thursday, March 29, 2012

Honest to God, I still have almost no idea who Eric Hurley is, save that he has done most of his baseballing in the minors, where he was an erstwhile first-rounder for Texas in 2004. He's apparently a survivor of shoulder surgery, a broken wrist, and a skull fracture from a line drive. Today, we may add to that (more) impressive score a survivor of the Royals lineup, for he coughed up a five spot (with two home runs) in the first inning while not looking especially useful. He didn't really look like a useful pitcher until the third, when he only faced four batters, but still, he walked a man, which isn't helping him towards his goal.

It was presage for both teams, because the Angels came storming back in the second, with back-to-back-to-back home runs from Kendrys Morales, Mark Trumbo, and Hank Conger, part of a five-run inning of their own that knocked a Royals starter Everett Teaford around.

That pretty much set the stage for the rest of the game. While Teaford didn't take the loss, a nondescript 4-A reliever named Francisley Bueno did the honors in the fourth, giving up five consecutive hits from leadoff man Erick Aybar all the way through Vernon Wells, ultimately resulting in four more runs scored and, beyond that, the game.

The Angels relief crew from the sixth inning on was surprisingly strong, posting four frames of no-hit ball. While you might expect this of Scott Downs, it was a happy relief from Jason Isringhausen, whose spring has been a pockmarked mess that has, at times, come close to announcing his retirement. Kevin Johnson (who?) and Jordan Walden finished out affairs, and so to the end of the game. Kansas City, visibly, is on its way to better days, but not, at least, a win today.